Read this week's re-posting of Duke University's 'The Climate Post' to learn: why the supreme court shot down a global warming lawsuit against five of America's biggest utilities and what it means for the EPA; what former Vice President Al Gore has to say about the Obama administration's work on climate change; and, exactly how much money Google has invested in renewable energy projects so far this year.

As a reminder, The Climate Post is a fantastic weekly rundown of climate related news, trends and events that is put together by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Saving WAter, Saving Energy has been generously given permission to re-post The Climate Post by Eric Roston, a Senior Associate at the Nicholas Institute.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court shot down a global warming lawsuit several states and environmental groups had brought against five of America’s biggest utilities, responsible for about one-tenth of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The case was aimed at getting the court to rule greenhouse gas emissions a public nuisance and order the defendants to reduce them. But the court said Congress had already authorized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to handle greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, concluding: “We see no room for a parallel track.”

The new decision bolstered the court’s 2007 decision, in which it ruled the EPA does have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as well as traditional pollutants, like smog and particulate matter.

After the new decision, the door is still open for environmental nuisance suits in general, and potentially even for state-level nuisance suits on greenhouse gases, noted Yale law professor Douglas Kysar. And, he pointed out, if Congress strips the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases—as some recent bills attempted to do—then the nuisance suits on a federal level could return.

In a long article in Rolling Stone, former Vice President Al Gore made pointed criticisms of the Obama administration’s work on climate change. “His election was accompanied by intense hope that many things in need of change would change,” Gore wrote. “Some things have, but others have not. Climate policy, unfortunately, is in the second category.”

Big Oil is also in the sights of the cartoon “Cars 2.” In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Director John Lasseter said, “I kept going to big oil” as the villain in the soon-to-be-released film.